Many courier, express, and Postal (“CEP”) companies rely on electronic data interchange to capture and link unique barcodes with customer destination addresses in order to automate their track & trace and sortation systems which are required for operational efficiency and on-time delivery commitments. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents or business data from one computer system to another computer system.
For many CEP companies, there is an ongoing challenge to capture and link this vital information prior to collection and induction of parcels into their network. According to a Gartner study published in 2009, fewer than 25% of the total number of transportation/delivery companies had implemented some level of automated EDI capture. And of those companies, the range of EDI information available at induction can vary between 50% to 99%. This current situation has a huge impact on daily operational cost and can negatively impact customer service because many of these non-automated parcels where EDI information is missing requires manual processing which can impact delivery timelines. FIG. 1 represents a typical CEP workflow which illustrates both automated and manual processes.
Currently, all parcels that are missing critical EDI data must be rerouted from an automated sortation system for manual processing. Manual processing of these parcels can take anywhere from 10 seconds, to 10 minutes per parcel. For example: Assuming it would take a person 5 minutes on average to manually link EDI information on a parcel, and the depot received 300 parcels that require manual processing within a 4 hour window, the carrier would have to assign 7 people to manually process all 300 parcels for next day delivery.